Silicon Valley’s new status symbols

If you’re new here: Hi, I’m Ryan Hoover, founder of Product Hunt and early-stage investor at Weekend Fund. I also helped write Hooked and occasionally publish essays. This newsletter highlights my latest experiments, essays, and curiosities. If someone forwarded this to you, subscribe along with 25k+ others here. :)

1. Silicon Valley’s status symbols are changing. A lot has changed since I moved to San Francisco in 2010. Here’s what I’ve observed.

2. We’ve seen a decline in LP dollars deployed into emerging managers over the last few years. AngelList is seeing a rebound—LP capital into funds is up 43% QoQ. Of course this is limited to AngelList’s network but a good sample of a significant part of the venture market.

3. Function Health recently acquired Ezra. This was my trigger to finally get a full body MRI. The experience was simple. Pretty cool to see my innards. Note: Here’s my Function Health referral code if you want to try it out.

4. I also just froze my sperm. Everything’s fine, but Legacy makes it so easy and affordable to get “insured”. I know, maybe TMI.

5. This might be the most fun time to build software. It’s easier, faster, and we have so many new infrastructure toys to play with. 

6. Add Darius’ disco house mix to your next work session. He’s so good.

7. Every investor is asking: "How is this defensible?" My Weekend Fund teammate, Vedika, created a rubric to stress-test a startup’s AGI-proof moat.

8. Who’s building tech for people who want to be hot? The med spa and aesthetic market is huge but could be much larger, especially among men. Seriously, LMK if there’s an early-stage startup in this category I should chat with.

9. More on vanity: I just got my report from Qoves. It’s fascinating and introduced me to new scientific approaches to measuring attractiveness. Their Insta is a must-follow.

10. Recently a 10-year-old DM’d me about a product he built. I’ve seen many young builders over the years, but none as young as Srihan. I thought it was a 30-year-old founder playing a “I’m a kid” card to get attention. But then he released this video. Love seeing young makers launching on Product Hunt. :)

11. This Huberman podcast on fat loss and muscle growth is worth a listen. His guest, Alan Aragon, shares a few controversial (for some) takes on how much protein you should consume and indifference between fasted vs. unfasted cardio.

12. I went to Beeper launch event earlier this week. Automattic’s been on an acquisition spree lately with a big focus on messaging. I’m curious to see it play out.